For information on becoming a foster parent or adopting a foster child, go to: www.azdes.gov.

By Jackee CoeThe Republic | azcentral.comSun Nov 24, 2013 7:55 AM

The steady chatter of toddlers, baby coos and children’s voices fill Amy Flanagan’s large kitchen as the single mom and her seven children sit down for dinner.

It’s a mix of wooden chairs, high chairs and booster seats.

Between bites of pot roast and vegetables, Flanagan tries to feed 1-year-old Grant.

He dumps his food from his plate onto his high-chair tray and tries the plate out as a hat.

“He’s just done,” Flanagan finally says. The 43-year-old Peoria mom takes a few more bites of her dinner and talks to 3-year-old Gabby and 8-year-old Kassandra, before 3-year-old Gage grabs her attention. He’s refusing to eat his dinner, his fork now in his hair.

With four of her seven children under age 4, Flanagan handles such antics daily.

“We pick our battles,” she explains.

Flanagan is a foster mother who adopted a fifth child on Saturday, National Adoption Day. Her clan also includes her biological son and a 1-year-old foster child, who isn’t being named because the child is a ward of the state.

Once the children finish dinner, Flanagan lets the family’s three small dogs in from the backyard. The “cleanup patrol” goes to work, finding stray food beneath the table.

Flanagan’s unique journey began after she and her husband divorced more than a decade ago. Her 13-year-old son, Griffin Yeaton, was 2 at the time, and it wasn’t long before he was asking for siblings.

When he wanted to “go to the store and buy me a baby sister,” Flanagan began thinking about adoption.

She settled on foster care because of how costly and difficult international and private adoption can be. Plus, her own parents had been foster parents to a young girl.

Flanagan became a licensed foster parent eight years ago with the understanding that she’d adopt one child through the system if the opportunity arose.

Opportunity arose five times.

There’s 8-year-old Kassandra, 6-year-old Kloee and then Gage and Gabby, who are 3-year-old siblings. She adopted their younger brother, Grant, on Saturday.

All of the children come from backgrounds of neglect and parental drug abuse.

They received support services from the state to help with developmental delays, and Flanagan showered them with love. They now are happy and healthy, and they participate in activities from sports to dance classes.

“I don’t feel like my kids are any different from the kids that they go to school with who didn’t come out of the foster-care system,” Flanagan says. “(Foster care) is an emotional roller coaster at times, but I also ... know that the children that are meant to stay with you forever are the ones that will stay.”

Adoption Day

National Adoption Day is designed to highlight the importance of finding permanent homes for children in foster care.

Judges, commissioners and court staff volunteered Saturday to finalize the adoptions of more than 300 children in Maricopa County.

Statewide, more than 14,000 children are in the foster-care system, according to March figures from the Arizona Department of Economic Security. Of those, 2,852 children are eligible for adoption and 1,825 have been placed with adoptive parents, although the adoptions have not yet been finalized.

“Every child wants to belong and wants to have a permanent home and a permanent family,” said Kathryn Pidgeon, an adoption attorney and co-chair for the county’s National Adoption Day.

Pidgeon has handled all of Flanagan’s adoptions.

“She’s just got a heart of gold and she has done so well with taking care of these children, and they thrive in her home,” Pidgeon said.

As for Flanagan, she said she probably is done adopting children, but she will continue to foster children because of the “overwhelming need.”

She said she understands why people choose to adopt internationally, but her heart breaks for all the children in foster care.

“I get that there’s other countries in this world that have humongous need for orphan children and children that are living in just horrible, horrible, horrible conditions,” Flanagan said. “But what I see is that there are (thousands of) kids in our own backyard that don’t have a home. ... There’s absolutely zero guarantee of adopting out of foster care, but the odds are in your favor.”

Simplicity is key

Managing a house full of seven children as a single parent isn’t easy, but Flanagan finds ways to make it work.

A technology project manager for American Express, she works most days from home, which allows her to be close to the children’s school and daytime baby-sitter. Her family lives in nearby Surprise.

She has a routine to get through the day. Simplicity is key.

“We have to have structure because we would never make it if we didn’t, but it’s not so structured that I have a chart on every wall,” she says.

Flanagan is a master of multitasking. She juggles cleaning the kitchen after dinner with tending to the children.

She jokes with Gabby while helping her wipe her hands and face clean of dessert.

She keeps an eye on Kassandra and Kloee playing in the backyard as she washes dishes and occasionally holds a fussy Grant.

She stops the dogs from covering the foster baby’s face with licks and makes sure Griffin finishes his homework.

Gage gets timeout when he hits his sister with a pillow.

Teenage Griffin recognizes that his mom does “definitely a lot more than what normal people do.”

While it can get stressful, he doesn’t regret asking his mom for a little sister.

“My life as it is now would have turned out a lot more differently if I didn’t,” he said. “It’s pretty fun having them all around.”

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